Landed aliens or what?
I love swimming, especially in the sea. Jellyfish are the one thing that can stop me from enjoying it.Usually, during the hot summer months there are a few weeks, when jellyfish become abundant, and even entering the water can be unpleasant, stinging, burning. Also when you do not actually see any of them close by. Apparently they release their tentacles with the stinging substance in the surf close to the beach.
I've never seen the monsters in winter, until today, that is. Today's storm washed up over a hundred of them.
I agree, when in the water, they are amazing, elegant, fascinating (as long as they don't come close to my exposed skin) but once stranded they become... weird. they look a little like that gooey yucky stuff some little kids like to play with in order to gross out anyone not as little and fascinated by yucky stuff as them.
And the winter jellyfish appear to be of a different kind the the ones we see in summer. Even weirder. They are quite big (the large ones have a 70 cm diameter) and appear to be more fleshy, quite substantial, unlike the watery things washed ashore during the summer. They are quite heavy, unlike their summer cousins. And like i said, this is the first time i've seen any jellyfish during this period of the year. I tipped a few of them over, gently, i have no idea if the things are still alive and if so, if they can actually feel anything. Do they have brains? Nerves? Do they have some form of "awareness"? Do they feel pain? They are so different from the summer jellyfish. They weigh quite a bit.
Global warming? Ecological changes in marine life? Another balance upset?
I truly have no idea. It's a bit eerie, something that doesn't entirely fit in.
Posts
9 comments:
Yudit there are also jellyfish in the winter.
Of course they exist also in winter, but i have never seen such amounts washed up during the wintermonths.
I walk at the beach almost every day.
It helps clear my mind when i'm upset, and assists my often muddled thinking when i have to solve something.
It also seems to be another type of jellyfish. I don't know much about jellyfish, but i have good eyes.
This is a different type.
Sorry I meant to say they (some types) also wash up in the winter sometimes.
They also wash up in Sour (Tyre) sometimes. If you carry them and place them under the sun they melt. The local kids used to do this.
I think they would still be 'alive', if you put them back into the sea they will go back.. That's what I used to do, and I used to wait to see if it would wash up again and it didn't.
I don't know.
Yudit check this out:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5256652.stm
I think it might answer some of your questions.
more on jellyfish:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellyfish
What i learn form the articles, is that overfishing may lead to an increase in jellies.
The amount on the beach right now is staggering , like it is during summer sometimes.
So, something, somewhere, upset the balance.
We're so careless with our natural resources.
Winds of change!
We do call this one a sea mushroom, you can touch it and nothing will happen, too the thing does not have those long tentacles but rather compact blobby arms.
Our summer is like your winter, thus with these temperatures other breeds might flourish than in summer.
Too there are jellyfish to be expected with eastern wind.
A thing like this, washed upon the shore and for some time out of its natural environment will like wales have minimal chance to survive.
You find on your daily walks any dead birds of the sea?
The End of the Line. How Overfishing
is Changing the World and What We Eat
Written by Charles Clover
Post a Comment